Our backwater location was hit hard by this spring's flooding on the Mississippi, but we found we can get to where we found the spring fish with the boat. The bite window has been so ridiculous narrow that we started fishing well before sunrise. Of course, fishing in total darkness creates some challenges with seeing the floats but I painted a few up with white tops and given a shot of regular glow-in-the-dark pigment or mainly white with less of the yellow and orange showing. Since we're only about 15 feet away this has worked pretty slick.
With the water level and water temperature dropping quickly keeping the jig/plastic where the fish are is imperative. The crappies, especially those big suckers, are very depth specific right now and without a float to keep things within their strike range fishing would be far less productive since these fish have shown they're not in the mood to chase. Last fall the water was too high, this year low and getting lower. Keeping the jig at the level the fish are hitting with a float has been the norm now and adding some glow or extra white so the float can be seen has saved us big time. Many of our fish seem to be just nosing up to the plastic and gently sucking it in, hardly making any notice even with the float. Been a weird bite this fall and having to start in the dark has compounded the detection problem until some glow was added.
The float on the right has the glow.
